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Bob Davidson

David,

The parent comment in Philly is just what I don't like about some of the St. Martin's crowd.

I love your Nixon story.  Ben Stein, who worked in his administration, has often said that RN was the finest man he's ever encountered in public life. After seeing what the intelligence establishment did to Trump, I'm beginning to think that those same people got Nixon for ending the Cold War.
 

Bob Davidson

Wayne,

To Hell and Back is one of my absolute favorite movies.  I watch it every couple of years.  I love Audie playing himself and the affectionate way the film shows his buddies, especially the ones killed.  I also like the way it portrays the attitude of our dads' generation -- unsentimental bitching constantly, but no whining.

The man is one of my heroes. 

Wayne Gary

Bob,

Your story about closing a Bank reminds me of what happened with City of Garland. The Resulation Trust  (RT) was selling a building in Downtown Garland near City Hall.  Garland thought the asking price was fine and the city was needing the office space so they offered to buy at the asking price and Resulation Trust was asking and they came back with a very long contract and wanted Garland to certify that the city or any employee did not have suits against the government.  Garland upset the RT when they called the 3 US congressmen representing parts of Garland to interceed in helping the city to buy the building.  As soon as teh congressmen started asking questions RT called the city asking why the congresmen were contacted.  Garland ended up buying the building.

Kurt Fischer

Alas.  I've turned into a grumpy old man.

Here's an interesting list of quotations from Democrats and anti-Trumpers.  It makes you a bit suspicious of the newly found wisdom of a call to unity within the country.  I'm not sure the majority of these folks feel this way.

Once more, sorry about the length, but I believe the volume and breadth of quotations makes the point.  (This was a click and paste exercise, so don't think I've been collecting all of these quotations while brooding over the election.)

Politicos

"We don't do things like those chumps out there with the microphones, those Trump guys." —Joe Biden

"It's not enough to just send Donald Trump packing, or even just to repair the damage he's done. We've got to unrig and rebuild the systems that made his rise possible to begin with, and that allowed his administration to hurt so many people in so many ways." —Elizabeth Warren

"We have the most dangerous person in the history of our country sitting in the White House." —Nancy Pelosi

"I used to wonder how could the people of Germany allow Hitler to exist. But with each passing day, I'm beginning to understand how." —James Clyburn

"You know, since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen not only the spreading of the virus but also a rapid spreading of racism and xenophobia." —Ayanna Pressley

"Trump wants to instigate a race war. So he can rise up and say, 'I'm the real grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan and I'm the President. Reelect me.' That's what he's trying to do." —Bobby Rush

"I want to acknowledge that much of the violence and destruction, both here in Seattle and across the country, has been instigated and perpetuated by white men." —Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan

"Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators." —Barack Obama

"Let's remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division. We've got a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead and connect with them on what unites us." —Michelle Obama

"The people who were very transparent about, like, voting because they wanted a tax cut — okay. But, like, you knew you also were voting for a racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, transphobic, human being who was going to have a lot of power to manifest those, like, hateful bigoted values into the world. So that may be what is your motivation." —Chelsea Clinton

"You are inbred racist trash. Please f—k off." —Democrat strategist Adam Parkhomenko to Marsha Blackburn

"He's gonna get his fat a— beat. ... The idea is not just to defeat Trump. You have to defeat Trump-ism. You have to defeat the idea that the United States of America is a place and not an idea." —James Carville

Leftmedia

"[Trump voters] have revealed themselves for the racists that they are, the tribalists that they are. … It's almost a level of fanaticism that I've only seen in cult groups and Middle East terrorist groups." —MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance

"This is about white people who saw a president who was corrupt and sexist and violent and mismanaged an entire pandemic that's killed over 230,000 people by the election and they said, 'I want some more of that.'" —MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson 

"Do any of you guys trust Uncle Clarence and Amy Coney Barrett and those guys to actually follow the letter of the law?" —MSNBC's Joy Reid

"We intellectually understand what America is at its base, right? That there is a great amount of racism, anti-blackness, anti-wokeness. This idea that political correctness is some sort of scheme to destroy white America, right? … I think part of your heart says, 'You know what? Maybe the country's going to pay off all of this pain.' As the night wore on … I realized … that's not happening. We are still who we thought, unfortunately. … It's disappointing, and I emerge from this disappointed." —Joy Reid

"Can we talk about 1 of the few topics I may actually know too much about: homicide? Specifically, whether Donald Trump may have criminal exposure for some level of negligent homicide or voluntary/involuntary manslaughter for the way he's mishandled the Coronavirus crisis. ... ALL criminal charges will have to be investigated and, if the evidence dictates it, prosecuted come Jan. 2021." —MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner

"Donald Trump would kill reporters if he could get away with it." —MSNBC's Joe Scarborough

"All of this [minority support for Trump] to me points to the power of the white patriarchy and the coattail it has of those who depend on it or aspire to it. It reaches across gender and sexual orientation and even race. Trump's brash, privileged chest trumping and alpha-male dismissiveness and in-your-face rudeness are aspirational to some men and appealing to some women. Some people who have historically been oppressed will stand with the oppressors, and will aspire to power by proximity." —NYT's Charles Blow

"May be relevant to note that there is a long, close association between right-wing activism and medical quackery." —NYT's Paul Krugman 

"I hope people realize that there are many white Republican voters in this country if they're given a choice between renting a room in their house to a person of color or burning down the house, they will elect to burn down the entire neighborhood. It's not just a small fringe." —NYT contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali

"You can't heal or reform the GOP who are now an extremist party. They have to be broken, burned down and rebuilt. When Biden is in power treat them like the active threats to democracy they are. If those who committed crimes aren't punished then they will be more emboldened." —Wajahat Ali

"The Road to Coronavirus Hell Was Paved by Evangelicals." —Katherine Stewart in The New York Times

"The white race is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world." —1619 Project guru Nikole Hannah-Jones

"These days, I am reminded quite often that you do not have to be white to support white supremacy." —WaPo's Eugene Scott

"If you quote the Trump admin you are an enemy of the people." —WaPo's Jennifer Rubin

"Any R[epublican] now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into 'polite' society. We have a list." —Jennifer Rubin

"The only patriot on the Right ... to me is Romney. He's the only one who stuck his neck out. The rest of them are trash." —"The View's" Joy Behar

"The terrorist Trump must be defeated, must be destroyed, must be devoured at the ballot box and then he and his enablers and his supporters and his collaborators and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs and the Sean Hannitys and the Mike Pences and the Rudy Giulianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society." —Keith Olbermann

"When this nightmare is over, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump's lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe." —Robert Reich

"If you vote for Donald Trump, you are a racist. You have no wiggle room." —Jemele Hill

"If Trump wins re-election, it's on white people. No one else." —Jemele Hill 

"[America is] a private club founded by old rich white men, for rich white men." —Charlamagne tha God

"There is a lizard brain in this country. Donald Trump is a product of the white man's, the anguished, nervous white guy's lizard brain." —Jon Meacham

Academia & Glitterati

"Donald Trump is not an Adolf Hitler. At least Hitler improved the daily life of his followers, had discipline, and required more of himself to gain the respect of his followers. … A refusal to make comparisons has been a problem, when they have such similarities. Donald Trump's death count is higher than Hitler's at the same period." —Yale University professor Bandy X. Lee

"We'll be saying this name a lot I'm sure because she's a f—ing nut. Religion — I was right about that one too. I'm sorry, but Amy [Coney] Barrett, Catholic — really Catholic. I mean really, really Catholic — like speaking in tongues. Like she doesn't believe in condoms, which is what she has in common with Trump because he doesn't either." —Bill Maher

"It's a very weird thing to watch these old creeps congratulate a handmaid on her clown car vagina." —Lauren Hough

"When you're born in this country, we all drink the poison that is white supremacy. Social justice is not just a literacy, it's a lifestyle." —Lady Gaga

"Donald Trump is actively trying to kill our children." —Rob Reiner

"It's insane what our fears are if we lose, compared to their fears if Biden wins. like we will prob all die or be handmaids and they're worried about bathroom safety." —Chrissy Teigen

"What more did Trump have to do to show us that he's insane and not fit to lead this country? I feel like I overestimated the American people, and I underestimated the Village People." —Jimmy Kimmel

"I can only imagine the envy with which [Donald Trump] watched Derek Chauvin's casual cruelty and monstrous indifference as he murdered George Floyd. I can only imagine that Donald wishes it had been his knee on Floyd's neck." —Bette Midler

"The closeness of this election is showing just how many decided racism is 'not a big deal.'" —Wesley Snipes

"F—k Donald Tromp [sic] and every American citizen, celebrity, white woman, black man, ETC who supported him burnnnnnnnnnn." —Janelle Monáe

Bob Davidson

Wayne,

Congressional inquiries, as they call them, are the bane of a bureaucrat's life. "Washington" demands an immediate response that calms the situation yesterday.

In the FDIC we joked that "RTC" stood for "Really Tiny Craniums."  We were funded by the bank insurance fund and had to justify every penny we spent; they were lavishly funded by the taxpayers after they took over for the FSLIC when FSLIC went through their insurance fund. They closed FSLIC, laid everyone off, created the RTC and rehired them all, with raises.  Under Clinton, the FDIC and RTC agencies were merged.

During that East Texas closing, everyone working in the bank (FDIC business people, new bank people, and old bank people) thought Muffy was Brunhilda's assistant.  To us legal bureaucrats it was funny that the grade 15 deputy assistant general counsel was reporting to a grade 9 paralegal specialist. Sort of like a lieutenant colonel from the Pentagon reporting to a corporal in the field, and being expected to hop to.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Kurt,

That was an excellent bunch of quotes for all to read, because it reveals SO much about why this past election turned out as it did; it was a "planned" effort to get rid of all of us cruel, evil Republicans once and for all.  And I believe the biggest reason for all the manifested hatred in the hearts and minds of the Democrats (most of them) is mainly because of the complicit lying and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media.  That media has become simply an arm of the Democrat Party in every desire and false theory that Party comes up with, completely shutting out half of the country's people with correct news reporting.  That media has failed the American people, and are not true journalists.  Joy Reid turns my stomach every time I hear her speak.  You talk about a racist!!

I fully understand why you are grumpy.  I feel the same, and am having a hard time realizing what our country has now become.  Or at least half of our country.......  The realization that what has become was predicted and fought against valiantly by those who saw it coming, is now, it seems, just history repeating itself once again, and humans exhibiting their ignorance of failing THE TRUTH.

Why do we never learn?

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

I was just reading about Obama's upcoming, soon to be released book, A PROMISED LAND.  Funny how he chose that title, isn't it?

He called Sarah Palin as being the one who unleashed xenophobia, anti-intellectualism (YES --He said that!!) ....paranoid conspiracy theories, and antipathy towards black and brown folks, into the Republican Party, and he STILL is saying that millions of people were spooked by the fact that he was a Black man. (He's actually half white and half black, but he never mentions that.)

And he is still saying that Republicans didn't lke him BECAUSE he is Black!!

He never understood folks, that IT WAS HIS POLICIES that we didn't like!!!!  This was the genious who couldn't figure out how to get rid of ISIS, but Trump did it lickety-split.

He still DOESN'T GET IT!

And he says Palin is the one spilling forth anti-intellectualism!   HA!

Talk about arrogance!

Holly Hobby

Wait! What!?? Bob? Bob Davidson?  What are you doing here?! Why I had no idea.  And to think I knew you as well as I know myself.  

Oh alright. You don't have to say it.  I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, ""Wait! What!? Svetlana/Holly?  What are you doing here!?!  You said you'd ‘never, ever, ever as long as you live, post again. Besides, it works both ways, you know." 

True. True. But immediately following my post was absolute intention of texting you: “Bob! I don't know what got into me!  I posted on both forums!  Text Uber. Wine. Send wine. Lots of it.”

Now. Bob Davidson, my adored friend and eminently trusted confidante momentarily aside, my original post:

Okay. There’s this book.  The Devil’s Advocate written by the late Taylor Caldwell, a British born American writer. Eerily prescient. Or not. Depending on one’s perspective.  Either way, in recent days couldn’t help but wonder (not worry) “could Caldwell’s futuristic depiction of a dystopian society happen here?”  

I can’t imagine.   But then, I never imagined seismic fracturing of our country.  Along with it, polemic rhetorical hot enough to catch trigger a firestorm.    

Yet here we are.  Therefore (in my unsolicited humble opinion)  it's reasonable to consider an upside to 2020.  Anything to lighten the mood. 

Things like…. things like…. Okay.  Things like sudden realization my entire summer work wardrobe consisted of tank tops, t-shirts, leggings and Nikes.  My entire fall/winter wardrobe: henley shirts over tank tops, occasional sweater, leggings and Nikes. And I like it that way!

Realization life goes on sans sky-high stilettos. Realization I never needed a curling iron. Or enough Sulwhasoo, Skin Ceuticals, Shiseido,  Future Luminance, SK-II etc  to open my own storefront when all along,  Cerave and Olay work just fine. 

Things like figuring out a swipe of Two-Faced Better than Sex Mascara (seriously, that’s the name of it)  top and bottom lashes...Wait!! Latisse. Gotta have Latisse or even Two-Faced Better than Sex Mascara won't  WOW your lashes.  Things like figuring out swipe of mascara across top and bottom lashes followed by a swipe of Burt’s Bees  Tinted Lip Balm and I’m good to go for the day. And night.  (Never knew that until the pandemic.)

Things like renewed realization that  little crinkles here and there are inevitable. And so are widely varying opinions.   I can’t change either. Nor should I.   Some days its all I can do to decide  between pink, red, peach or coral  Burt's Bees lip balm.   

So there is an upside.  Somewhere.  We just have to find it.  But I admit, even  then, in the back of my mind I wonder.... "is it possible, is there even a remote chance  our country could some day devolve into the unthinkable?"  

And on that note:  if  anyone has read Caldwell’s The Devil’s Advocate, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Promise I'm not writing an article on it.   Just curious as to others' thoughts.  PM for my email. 

In the meantime, love to all.  Be safe.  And stay well.

David Cordell

I just hope the re-education camps are in places with good weather. 

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

Do you think we will have to have our names inscribed on our underwear at the camps?  I don't want campers to know that those ugly, nurse-white, granny briefs are mine!  My Mom told me they were the most comfortable ones years ago, and she was right!

Do you think we women will have our hair cut and sold for wigs, like the Uighurs in China camps?

David Cordell

Janalu, I don't know about you, but I'd rather get my own underwear back, so I'm OK with labels. I don't want to mistakenly get any granny underwear. Not interested in getting in touch with my feminine side.

S'pose they'll tattoo a number on our wrists? Maybe a phrase, like "Hope and Change" or "All Republicans must die." Or maybe a picture of Hillary Clinton.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

I see your point about the labels being the best option.   

Never get your underwear from the Salvation Army!

If someone tattooed a Hillary photo on my arm, I'd gnaw it off, if need be, rather than have to endure its evil eye glare each day.

Your slogans were good ones.  Maybe one could be "Meatless Mondays: Save a dog," if the camp is located in China.

And I was thinking that written on the arched entry to the camp, it might read,"THIS AIN'T NO HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS."

I'll have to do some more thinking.....

.

David Cordell

Janalu,

Your comment about not buying your underwer from the Salvation Army reminded me of a relevant news story from 27 years ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/28/bill-clintons-great-skivvies-give-away/0dac853d-cf3d-4faf-8104-bcf124bd93b4/

David Cordell

Lance, 

By the time I let Martha throw out my underwear, my boxers are so worn out with so many holes that they look more like jock straps. (Yes, you will struggle to get that image out of your head!) Apparently, Bill is more fastidious, so his underwear are more donation-worthy.

Bob Davidson

David and Janalu,

The good thing for us is that we are old and can easily look confused.  The AOCs of the world already think we are dinosaurs so they won't really expect much of us except sincere attempts at conformity.  I think it will be much harder on the useful idiots when they realize that they were betrayed, like those poor suckers who were beaten and/or had their stuff destroyed by antifa and BLM despite their protestations of support.

As to certain of our politicians:

My favorite laugh out loud scene in a novel (by my favorite author -- Faulkner) is in the Snopes trilogy.  It's told by my favorite literary character V. K. Ratliff, the sewing machine salesman who makes his shirts from a fabric that matches his bright blue eyes -- and knows everything about everybody in the county because he listens to the women he visits on his sales calls, to his best friend Gavin Stevens, who Ratliff says had to be Harvard and Heidelberg educated to deal with the local folks.  Both live in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.  Gavin is the County Attorney.  V.K. and Gavin are both a little older than Faulkner, who was born in 1897.  I hope I can relate it with a bit of verve:

In 1946 the longtime Congressman from Yoknapatawpha County died.  There are two candidates running in the Democratic Primary to take his place:  one is a veteran just back from World War II, a Medal of Honor recipient; the other is Clarence Snopes, the longtime state senator of the infamous white trash Snopes clan that infested the area during Reconstruction.  Clarence's qualification is that he will do or say anything to get ahead and has no scruples whatsoever.  Unfortuantely, there are not enough veterans back yet who know what a Medal of Honor means so a lot of people believe the rumor Clarence started that the medal was given by the Yankee Congress because the other guy rescued a group of Northern Negro troops and left a group of white Southern boys for the Germans to slaughter.

Both Gavin and V.K. are appalled at this situation.  Then, miraculously, to everyone's amazement, at the Fourth of July picnic, Clarence Snopes' speech is suddenly interrupted and he runs to his car in the middle of it, then races out of the parking lot and abandons his campaign.  Gavin thinks V.K. had something to do with this and asks him what happened.

V.K. explains to Gavin, who was town-raised, about "dog bushes" -- in the country, dogs run free and there are certain bushes where they like to leave their calling cards, so that every other dog knows that ole Rover has been by that day. 

The County traditionally has a big Fourth of July picnic right before the primary election, which in those days was the only one that mattered.  All candidates are invited to appear and speak.

When Clarence walked up to the dias to start his speech, one of the local hounds followed him, and just as he started to speak, peed on his leg.  Clarence was kicking at him when a couple of the dog's pals joined in.  As Clarence kicked at them, the dogs got more stubborn and more dogs started circling him, until he ran from the stage in complete panic with the pack of dogs chasing him all the way to his Cadillac in the parking lot.  The audience was laughing so hard people were spitting up the free barbeque and fixings that got them there.

Apparently, somebody suggested to a couple of kids who seemed to be looking for trouble that it might result in an interesting situtation if they took a branch from the nearest dog bush and rubbed it on the back of Clarence's suit pants.  That someone also gave the kids a little money for ice cream. 

That finished poor Clarence Snopes' political career -- even the Yoknapatawpha County voters weren't going to vote for someone that dogs mistake for a plant.

Wayne Gary

I just heard this beautiful love song on the radio. It is from a few years ago.  Normally it is played in Spanish

Wayne Gary

Lance,

Has it cooled off enough to take you son to the range?

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Bob,

I enjoyed the funny excerpt from Faulkner!  You verbally painted a vivid picture in my mind of the 4th of July picnic in the park, where the fella' was sniffed out and showered!  A warm sunny day in the park amongst friends and neighbors, some barbeque to nibble, and some friendly politicing to boot! That Faulkner gentleman was well-informed of the southern way of life, wasn't he?  Very down-home and familiar, he was.

The familiarity makes me smile!

There's a dog bush in my neighborhood too.  The visiting nighttime deer don't eat those leaves, but eat just about everything else, especially the beautiful roses!  Those rascals!

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

I had heard about that incident of Ms. Clinton's undies ending up at the Salvation Army, a few years ago.  It didn't surprise me at all, having learned so much about her over the years.  I figure that she felt that thoroughly laundering the top-brand briefs was sufficient enough for those "little people," and that they were lucky to be able to acquire such fare in their neigborhood for a cheap price; a rather nice gift, don't cha' know!

Steve Keene

David, Hull and Steve Gardner,

I am sure you will be pleased to know that there has been quite a meltdown on the Punography Forum Website.

As an example I have copied for your amusement an email thread that was posted on the other site.

Hull Barbee

Thank you Steve K ......... that was quite amusing!!!!

David Cordell

David Tankersley,

I have mentioned this before.

One of my clearest memories from elementary school is an event in Mrs. Taylor's fourth grade class. As I recall, your desk was totally crammed full of papers (just a tiny bit worse than mine). But Mrs. Taylor was so angry with you that she dumped your desk over so that everything came out of it.

By the way, it's not as if Mrs. Taylor favored me. She gave me a C- in citizenship in the first six weeks. I object to the category "citizenship" though. I think deportment or behavior would have been more appropriate. I was an excellent citizen, albeit a talkative one.

David Cordell

MAMA'S BIBLE

One evening, four brothers chatted together after dinner .

They discussed the 95th birthday gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.

The first said, "You know I had a big house built for Mama."

The second said, "And I had a large theater built in the house."

The third said, "And I had my Mercedes dealer deliver an SL600 to her."

The fourth said, "You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can't read anymore because she can't see very well. I bought her a parrot who could recite the entire Bible.    It took ten preachers over 8 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $50,000 a year for five years to the church, but it was worth it.  Mama only has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot will recite it."

The other brothers were impressed.

After the birthday celebration Mama sent out her "Thank You" notes.

She wrote:

Milton, the house you built is so huge that I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway."

"Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home; I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks anyway."

"Michael, you gave me an expensive theatre that can hold 50 people, but all of my friends are dead, I've lost my hearing, and I'm nearly blind. I'll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same."

"Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift.

The chicken was delicious. Thank you so much."

Love, Mama

( Bet you didn't see that coming.)
 

"The Senility Prayer"
 God grant  me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the  eyesight to tell the difference.

Wayne Gary

I was just reminded of this song.  Hard to get out of your head.

Marty Fulton

Lowell:

Wishing that the Houston Open would have been televised last week.  I played Memorial Park

many times in the early 90's when I lived in Houston - usually after work with some of my co-workers.

Haven't been down there at all since it was renovated, but it is still rea$onable if you can get a tee time.

I also liked Gus Wortham (several Tournament Scrambles) and Hermann Park, but Memorial was 

overall the best layout and condition.